In the first part of the blog series on the first 100 days of diselva, I talked about the emotional world and the roller coaster rides at the beginning. The second part is about our “Business Insides”: shortage of skilled workers, maturity in digitization and the challenges of being able to implement projects in companies quickly and agilely. – or in other words “why it doesn’t go so smoothly…”.
When a company starts without its own legacy – like diselva – and thus has a high degree of flexibility, commitment and willingness to cooperate, the perspective on some topics changes enormously.
Digitization Matura
Where do companies stand in digitalization? It is undisputed that all companies are dealing with digitization issues in one form or another. However, the many appointments with customers have once again shown us very vividly what we already knew from our experience – really everyone is on the path to digitization, but all of them in very different forms and with a very different maturity of digitization and with a high variance in the digital competence of employees – especially managers.
Probably not very surprising – but there is also one thing in common: all customers are looking for external impulses and support in a wide variety of forms from leadership, conception, analysis to challenging their own ideas. The challenges in dealing with the digitization of the core business and especially sales have increased continuously. IT infrastructure and architecture has become more and more a confusing and self-evolving zoo. The systems have certainly fulfilled the right function at some point, the increasing complexity, change and, above all, networking of data and systems, the increasing speed of change generate high costs and a high use of resources to operate and further develop this architecture.
The ability to modularize and network individual systems into a functioning overall architecture is becoming more and more of a challenge in order to be able to meet the demands of sales and business in general. Not to mention providing guidance through a comprehensible strategic direction. We are sure that we can contribute to excellent solutions here.
Shortage
Everyone is talking and complaining about the shortage of skilled workers in the IT sector (see, for example, in a very recent study by UBS). It can’t be that bad. It is more complicated than expected to get individual employees into companies and projects as support and to counteract the acute shortage. In my opinion, legal regulations, wrong incentive systems, inflexible working models, high formal hurdles, opaque recruitment procedures, lack of responsibility for customer and project success in the “assignment of personnel” are reasons that prevent the flexible use of the free resources available on the market and thus the exploitation of existing potential.
The shortage of skilled workers could be reduced to a not inconsiderable extent by greater elasticity and simple exchange of skills (please not resources). A rethink is needed here. Not only can politics solve this dilemma through liberalization, but companies in particular can make agility and flexibility a reality.
If the concepts of the “modern ways of working” are actually applied, and flexibility and efficiency are the dominant parameters of the future, then this should not end at company boundaries. Why not consistently apply scarce and thus valuable know-how and skills where the sensible use will provide the best momentum and thus the highest overall economic benefit? So it is no longer about one-sided “personnel leasing” as a business model, but about real cooperation among each other, the exchange of rare and sought-after skills.
Investors, processes, procedures and many good reasons not to do it
In the sense of time of our customers and thus established and larger companies, 100 days are simply 100 days. For us as a start-up, the first 100 days are crucial and feel like they decide our future existence. The perception and intensity of these 100 days could not be more different.
There is a demand from customers. The pressure to solve problems is high, employees are confronted with far-reaching challenges, opportunities and momentum want to be used. Challenge and problem are understood – a solution – the solution is tangible. With our expertise and availability, we would be in the right place at the right time. But in every company there are good and understandable reasons not to do it right now and to wait for a few more clarifications and decisions:
- … processes and procedures still need to be followed
- … it still has to be done with …. can be discussed
- … a trend-setting investor decision still has to be awaited
- … internally we do not have the resources (shortage of skilled workers?)
- … We still have to… Other prioritizations on short-term tasks
- … we can’t decide that without the IT groups in the USA
- … we first have to restructure the internal organization, we have to solve internal organizational problems before the topic is pursued further
- … in three months the new CIO will start, until then…
- … we want to start without external help, because we don’t have a budget, but only the order…
- … if you do this as a free PoC or MVP, then we can do it later…
Without question, much of it is understandable, expedient and, in times of corporate governance, not only sensible, but simply necessary. In some cases, however, there is also a lack of entrepreneurial decision-making leeway to do the right thing. Often in courage and even more often in the real will to change. The fact is that the problems remain and are not being tackled consistently. In some places, our customers’ employees are trapped in over-administered and over-regulated structures that make it impossible to make decisions quickly, flexibly and in the sense of a solution.
In the discussions with these employees, a lot of hope is expressed for change in the context of the digital transformation of systems and processes. However, in addition to optimizing systems and processes, there needs to be a clear commitment to making decisions where appropriate know-how is available and where impact can be achieved. We can understand every decision in the respective context, but it would actually be the other way around: Continuing now with external expertise would bring the greatest benefit – letting time pass does not bring customers closer to the goals they have set.
Showing quickly noticeable results in projects is not only in diselva’s own interest, but in the interest of customers and companies. It helps to convince both the management level and the employees of the usefulness of the project, to show the advantage for each stakeholder group and to reduce the potential for frustration through seemingly endless postponements.
New kids on the block
Not only we as diselva are new to the market – despite 150 years of experience in the digital industry. Many systems are also new. Lean, modern software products are entering the market. What do we have in common? Nobody was waiting for us. But in the role of challengers to established consulting and implementation partners and large, monolithic software manufacturers, we are a welcome and sought-after partner. Our broad network and reputation in the market have opened many doors for us. In the discussions to drive effective measures around the digital transformation at process, system and organizational level and steer them in the right direction, we were able to win customers through our experience and credibility and are now able to guide and accompany them on their way. Nevertheless, we remain the “new kids on the block” and have to prove ourselves anew every day.
In the third part of my blog series on the first 100 days, I will talk about our “positioning on the market”: In addition to the fact that no one was waiting for us, a clear differentiation is both a curse and a blessing. Blessing: The market knows what it gets – curse: the many missed opportunities, because we could still do that…